TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.
Issue link: http://digital.themreport.com/i/1196118
M R EP O RT | 13 MTECH the rapidly growing home equity investment category. One homeowner who turned to Hometap while trying to find a way to fund home renovations and pay off credit card debt is Butch F. from Monroe, North Carolina. "My wife and I had to start putting home repairs, including a new roof and HVAC system, on our credit cards," he said. "We knew we had to pay off the credit card debt and were worried that if we didn't get an- other home loan, we might have to sell our house. That's when we started searching for alterna- tives and found Hometap. Given our financial situation, it was a no brainer—the process was easy, we received our cash in a few weeks and were able to pay off our credit card debt, while hav- ing enough cash left over to fix our driveway and yard, which has already helped increase the value of our home." In addition to helping home- owners unlock the equity in their homes to address finan- cial needs or pursue future opportunities, Hometap is also helping to solve a significant as- set allocation problem in the U.S. Homeowners can now use the wealth built up in their home to invest in other assets in order to diversify their portfolio and right size their debt. In addition, the company is providing its inves- tors access to the U.S. residential real estate market, an asset class that was previously difficult to access. "We are thrilled to be invest- ing with Hometap. With a highly transparent, customer-first approach, they are providing a valuable solution to the challeng- es faced by many homeowners," said Nugi Jakobishvili, ICONIQ's Chief Investment Officer. "As investors, it's rare to find op- portunities with the combination of an attractive asset profile, a gifted management team, and the potential to provide meaningful economic benefits to households across the country. Hometap's deep bench of high quality, high integrity professionals has created an exceptional platform that helps align homeowners and investors. They are incred- ibly well-positioned to lead the growth we are witnessing in the market." A Better Way for Broker Vetting VENDORLY'S THIRD-PARTY ORIGINATOR OVERSIGHT PROGRAM IS DESIGNED TO CENTRALIZE DUE DILIGENCE DOCUMENTATION. V endorly, a vendor oversight platform for financial institutions, announced the launch of a third-party originator (TPO) oversight program for mortgage lenders to streamline the broker vetting process and create a cen- tral repository for due diligence documentation. The program further enhances the Vendorly third-party risk management (TPRM) methodology and complements mortgage lenders' existing vendor management programs. The mortgage lending industry has seen significant growth in the number of mortgage brokers since the financial crisis. With this growth, lenders who utilize these brokers as TPOs have to ensure that the brokers are properly vetted and qualified. Overall, the broker application process can be complex and may include the review of multiple data points before a broker can become approved and begin submitting loans. Vendorly's TPO oversight program helps an organization's internal risk and broker approval department to automate and streamline the broker approval process with the use of an electronic broker ques- tionnaire package that is sent and tracked from the Vendorly platform. "Vendorly created this service based on our deep understand- ing of the mortgage process to better assist our clients in the mortgage origination space," said Steve Greenfield, CMB, Director of Operations, Vendorly. "Understanding the risks of the organizations you are doing busi- ness with is critical to making optimal risk-based decisions when working with the broker community. Each lender may have different TPO approval re- quirements and our approach to the TPO vetting process is cus- tomizable to our clients' needs." "The Vendorly TPO oversight program further strengthens Altisource's mortgage offering by addressing a significant area of growth in mortgage lend- ing, specifically the independent mortgage broker commu- nity," said Justin Vedder, SVP, Altisource. "Our clients can turn to Altisource as their provider in this market to help fulfill their mortgage needs." Improving Verification of Assets FINICITY AND ELLIE MAE HAVE TEAMED UP TO HELP SPEED UP THE MORTGAGE APPLICATION PROCESS. F inicity, a provider of real- time financial data access and insights, and Ellie Mae®, a cloud-based platform provider for the mortgage fi- nance industry, announced that Finicity's digital Verification of Assets (VoA) solution is now available through Ellie Mae's Encompass Consumer Connect, part of the Encompass Digital Lending Platform. Today's consumers expect an increasingly simple, fast, and accurate application process. This has been made possible by digital solutions such as Finicity's Verification of Assets, which can shorten the applica- tion process by as many as six days. Now borrowers can access this solution through Encompass Consumer Connect matching an automated, enhanced customer experience with the efficiency of digital verification. "We believe that consumer expectations are driving the mortgage lending experience to one that is simple and intui- tive," said Steve Smith, CEO and Co-Founder of Finicity. "We're excited to partner with Ellie Mae through the Encompass Consumer Connect platform to deliver a next-gen experience to Homeowners can now use the wealth built up in their home to invest in other assets in order to diversify their portfolio and right size their debt.